Thus, in the interest of fairness and diversity of opinion, I am revisiting junior ski racing one more time, but this time through the eyes of two families, one in Idaho and one in Colorado (which will have to do because I don’t know any Austrians and I don’t speak German). To those of you who are completely bored by this topic, I apologize. To those of you who felt that I slighted this great sport, I offer this post. It is my olive branch to all ski racing families. I salute you. I really do.

You put your kids in ski racing and guess what? They are really good at it. They win all the local races and they qualify for the regional or state championship in the recreational league. Now, they’ve been invited by your race club to join the competitive, traveling team. Are you ready for this?

At some point, you, as a ski mom or dad, may be asking this question: should we put our child or children in a recreational racing program. It seems like a pretty simple question – as a society we foster competition in most other endeavors, so why not in skiing?

I am a sports parent. I am a ski mom (yes, a brave one), a hockey mom, a soccer mom, and a basketball mom. I like being a sports mom. I pride myself on my good sports-parent behavior and I am proud to say, I am usually, a mostly silent sports mom. My husband is also a sports parent. He’s a loud sports parent.

October marks the beginning of ski season in Colorado, as Loveland and Arapahoe Basin duel it out to see who will make the most snow and get their lifts open first. Sometimes, mother nature helps a lot and other times, being fickle and unpredictable, she doesn’t. But fickle is the nature of October: freezing temps, followed by golden Indian summer days, followed by gray rain and snow, maybe a few more golden days, and of course, Halloween.